Intricate plotting, well-staged scenes and colorful descriptions enhance head-spinning but lively entertainment.
A debut historical novel peopled by Dante and other Italian Renaissance figures, along with reimagined Montagues and Capulets.
In September 1314, Padua is at war with Verona, which is flourishing under the rule of wily Francesco “Cangrande” della Scala. Although Cangrande is technically the overlord of several cities including Padua, the latter seeks to regain control of Vicenza, now governed by Cangrande’s brother-in-law and thus allied with Verona. To achieve their aims, the Paduan lord Giacomo “Il Grande” da Carrara and his nephew Marsilio join forces with Count Vinciguerra of San Bonifacio, a nobleman banished from Verona and enemy of Cangrande’s family. As the Carraras and the Count attack a Veronese suburb, Cangrande hosts a wedding party for his nephew and welcomes exiled Florentine poet Dante Alaghieri [sic] and his two sons. Elder son Pietro, the novel’s de facto protagonist, gets swept up in Cangrande’s subsequent routing of Padua. Warming to the excitement of battle, as well as the companionship of young aristocrat Romeo Mariotto Montecchio and newly titled Antonio “Antony” Capecelatro, Pietro saves Cangrande’s life and captures Marsilio. Pietro is knighted for his bravery, but he also sustains an injury and observes tensions brewing between his friends over Marsilio’s cousin Gianozza. Betrothed to Antony but enamored of Mariotto, Gianozza reignites the feud between the Montecchi and the Capelletti. (Shakespeare anglicized both families’ names for Romeo and Juliet.) After Mariotto and Gianozza elope, a duel between unexpected principals erupts and Pietro must depart Verona, leaving his newly arrived sister Antonia in charge of their father as he pens Purgatorio. Pietro has been enlisted to find the man who repeatedly attempts to abduct little Cesco, Cangrande’s illegitimate son. Since Cesco is believed to be the fabled savior of Italy, much depends on Pietro when the kidnapper succeeds at last, but the machinations of court may be harder to stomach than anything conceived by adversaries.
Intricate plotting, well-staged scenes and colorful descriptions enhance head-spinning but lively entertainment.Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-312-36144-0
Page Count: 608
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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